Alphabet Soup: Show Recap 8/26

OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS we did the thing, we showed at First level at a rated show in very soupy conditions and my pony tried her heart out.

We looked pretty good doing it too :) Still a little shocked by that actually since I'm the queen of crazy faces and awkward outfits.

Somehow (still not sure how) we ended up being able to load, trailer to the show grounds, warm up, ride our test, and load to head home in a break in the rain. As soon as we left the show grounds it started raining again which was fine by me.

I'm pretty sure now that my unicorn (pooping rainbows) socks and Stubborn Together bracelet are lucky and my pink toes just kicked it up the extra notch we needed today ;)

Katai loaded first try, no hysterics, (since the trailer was completely open like a stock trailer) and we headed out. At the grounds she was pretty good but just a few minutes in started rearing which caused the show secretary to tell me that if she didn't quit I needed to get her a stall. I wasn't against it but I'm not sure it would have helped much beyond containing her. Mostly it just upped my stress level and I felt so bad that we caused her to need to give us a talking to. I untied her and took her to graze over near the ring we'd be riding in.

I was watching the warm up and keeping an eye on how things were going. It was soupy and at first I wanted to try it out to make sure I could actually ride in the equally soupy ring but after seeing multiple horses slipping around I changed my mind. L was showing in the same space and ended up warming up in this driveway area near a building and advised me to do the same.

Warmup

I also took the time to walk her through a few puddles. It's not like she doesn't do that in her pen but I've probably only ridden her in a wet arena once in her life and that's when meltdowns were a common thing so I'm not sure I schooled her through puddles at all.

In this part of the show grounds she was pretty relaxed and quiet. We ended up doing a pretty short warmup and then just walking around and standing a bit. When I first rode her into the arena for First Level test 1 it was pretty clear it was going to be tough to get a good test. She stopped dead at the first puddle and I needed to pony club kick her forward. I took advantage of the chance to walk/trot/canter (although the canter took a few pony club kicks to get going and was so rough) around the ring and then let the judge know I was ready. 

I knew I was doing a lot of bending and being busier with my hands than I like and she was trying to get tense and braced. She's definitely behind the vertical in a lot of these pictures but we're not riding that way at home and Jane isn't too concerned about it. It's just the next thing we need to deal with.

Little on the forehand but MOVING IN THE MUD!!!

So much freer in the shoulder than she was!

We got stretch!!!!

BTV but more lifted in front

We got medium walk and free walk without breaking to trot!!
She thought about it but I shut it down and she listened.

Little tight but we're cantering!

I'm definitely tight through my elbows here so even more btv

The hock action was certainly improved ;)

Love my face here as I was going OH SHIT. There was a
HUGE puddle right along the long side in the middle of
where we needed to do our canter lengthening.
It was either jump over it or go around it at that point for Katai

#notaneventer so I was very thankful when she sort of went around it

Then she was back to business (Darn right toe still didn't want to behave)
and btv (darn elbows)

#actuallygotalengthening Jane was squealing about this one after :)
This is sort of a weird angle but you can see how much higher her front leg is!

Finally, we nailed the halt :)

 In the end we had a few mistakes. She broke to canter in the first lengthening (at least that's a good mistake as far as mistakes go), she broke to trot in our second 15 meter canter circle and then picked up the wrong lead so I needed to shut it down and try again, and then went around the puddle. Not completely a mistake but almost off course. I also had a couple of sloppy corners. I was trying not to upset her or pick a fight over anything especially with the mud.

My judge was great and fair with the conditions and the mistake that was purely condition related (going around the puddle) didn't reduce our score much.

In the end.

Another blue and some more glassware

We're 3 for 3 and while it's awesome and encouraging to win these classes this one was only two people and the other rider was a junior :) However, I did get a really great score of 64.074%!!! If this weren't opportunity that would have been my first Bronze Medal score but/and also certainly not competitive enough for first place. However, with that score at this show, I'm even more confident that we can get our 1st level Bronze scores next year!

Katai got STUFFED FULL of all the treats after since this time I'd remembered to have some in my pocket. After getting her untacked, I walked her around and let her graze and she was really pretty good despite turning into a pony kite a few times. We finally loaded her (she walked right on again) and then went to pick up my tests.

That first halt seems to kill us every time

8 for the final halt and 7.5 for the lengthening!!!!
I'm also happy with 7 for Rider's position despite me feeling floppy with all
the corrections I was needing to give to keep her going the right direction at the right speed haha.

Jane's comment was "yeah for a 70%+, otherwise that's 2nd level".
I love how sassy and protective she is of her students :)
Also, everyone always thinks Katai is a boy...

We had an uneventful ride home with lots of rainy dressage show stories and then I got Katai unloaded, cleaned the trailer and let her roll in the arena a few times before I got her mostly sprayed off. She got even more treats, granola bars this time, and hay and was looking better and less stressed by the time I left.

I'm so so so pleased with how this went. I had almost thought about not braiding because I was just meh about dealing with it in the rain but I'm so glad I did and so glad that I had my friend M there to take all the amazing riding photos. She's not a professional photographer but she's got an AMAZING eye and camera and because she also rides dressage she knows which pictures to take when. It's so incredible to have these pictures and so amazing to have her there to support me. She was really shocked with how much we've improved (so am I) and it was nice to have someone who's seen Katai at her worst (we boarded together right after I left J's) notice how much different she looks.

Now, of course, that this went so well and it was my last planned show I'm already looking forward to next year and to a winter of pushing both of us for the next step. This was certainly even better than the way I hoped to end our 2017 show season :)

Milestone: Lesson Recap 7/9

No new pony pictures so you get some more pictures from Kentucky

As mentioned in my previous post the plan was for me to have a lesson once I got back on Sunday to make up for the past Tuesday when we canceled due to the holiday. Jane's amazingly nice and flexible as she didn't expect me to set a time on Sunday and just watched for me to get there so that I didn't need to feel stressed about making it at a specific time after my flight. I ended up getting there right around 5 I think so it was hot but not unbearable.

We warmed up using the full ring again and getting Katai cruising before we asked for anything else. She was moving nicely to start (especially after a few days off) and so after a bit we did some leg yields and we NAILED them! We've still been struggling but on Sunday we really got them. I think it was a combination of getting her off my leg better in warmup and that I'm finally starting to put the pieces together to be able to ride them appropriately even as her balance changes throughout the movement.

After a walk break we did some shoulder in and just worked on sitting trot in general. It's already improved from how it was at my last lesson but I'm still struggling with losing my stirrups and maintaining consistency in my position. Even with that we got some really good should in. Jane had me do an exercise where we'd do half the long side, do a 10 meter circle and then go straight for the rest of the long side just to make it so that Katai didn't need to do SI the whole distance. I struggled enough with getting her shoulder off the wall and making the 10 meter circles appropriately that Jane set up cones and that ended up being as much a focus of the exercise as the SI was. Ah well, I have to keep reminding myself that this sitting trot thing is really new for both of us.

Overall Jane was really happy with our SI and with our progress in sitting trot as well.

Downtown Lexington

After another walk break we started our canter work and did some counter canter through shallow serpentines. To the right we did quite well but (maybe because she was tired after all the canter to the right and SI) to the left she struggled and wanted to use speed to cheat. However, her canter is still much improved and she's mostly letting me slow her down and control the rhythm and tempo better than she was.

At our final walk break Jane brought up that she thinks we're going to be ready for 1st level at our next show!!! I may make that goal after all. First level test 1 basically has the addition of leg yield and if we can keep going the way we have recently we'll be ready for that by the end of August for that show. Then I'll probably also enter Training 2. It will still be opportunity classes for both and then next year I'll join all of the things so that we have more test options.

The horse park is such a beautiful place

We also decided that instead of doing any other schooling shows I'm going to do two clinic rides with Susanne likely in November. She teaches the clinic at my old barn which is just a few miles away and we'll trailer there and back both days so it will be a great experience for Katai. It shouldn't be too intimidating since she lived there for awhile and it's a nice short journey so it shouldn't be overly stressful. It will also be good for me since I'm sure I'll learn even more than I would at a show.

It was such a great lesson and felt like a great payoff after a few tougher rides :)

Weekend Update

Well, I feel like I haven't blogged in awhile now but I don't have any good excuse. On Saturday I attended the MN March for Science.

The turnout was great, it was fun, and the weather was AMAZING!!

Unfortunately I ended up with a headache and so I didn't go to the barn that day and instead ended up laying around on the couch watching NCIS.

On Sunday I went to the barn in the morning and had a great ride. Jane had moved a couple of horses to a pen at the end of the arena and had the sliding door open so Katai was quite keyed up. I used it to my advantage to test our improved relationship and my new skills. By keeping her really bent and moving off my leg at that end I had a very ridable pony. In fact it was fun because she was more forward and up in front of me. I had memorized first level test 1 the previous evening so I played with bits of that test, cuing for the canter at C for example. Unfortunately now that we've been working so much on the canter and canter transitions Katai is throwing that transition in when I want her to lengthen her trot across the diagonal. Oh well, something to work on.

After that we worked on the trailer again. This is our 4th or 5th time now, I've sort of lost track. At any rate last time we practiced things really clicked and Katai did an AMAZING job. This time Jane had moved the trailer to right in front of the barn, had it hooked up to the truck, and had removed the divider so it's completely open. With those changes (and Jane and her SO working nearby) I kind of thought she might regress a bit. However, she walked right in at least 5-6 times and although she was dancey (she was actually doing a bit of Piaffe) she wasn't as nervous as she has been in the past. At one point I heard Jane's SO yell "See! She's ready for I-2". I giggled but Jane was studying Katai and nodding her head so it must have been a decent, if very trailer induced piaffe. Then Katai threw in some Levade for good measure. She was definitely more stressed on the trailer with everything going on but she would immediately calm down once I took her out so that's huge progress.

After that I went to my parents and my dad and I finished up this!

It is so, so cool and I can't wait to load it with all my tack. It still needs to be sanded and finished but my dad will be bringing it to my place on Friday and then I'll be able to work on it whenever I like rather than making the 1.5 hour drive to my parent's place. 

It's only been about a year and a half in the making :) It's been an amazing project with my dad and now I'm trying to figure out what else I can work on with him.

With my sister and dad for scale, it's big!